On ‘Oprah,’ Jones Admits to Mistake
Marion Jones gave her first interview since being released from prison for lying to federal investigators, saying on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Wednesday that she believes she could have won her medals at the 2000 Olympics without performance-enhancing drugs. Jones also tearfully read a letter she said she wrote to her two children during her six-month prison term. “I truly believe that the reason I made the awful mistake and a few thereafter was because I didn’t love myself enough to tell the truth,” Jones said. Jones was sentenced for two counts of lying to federal officials in the Balco investigation and in a check-fraud case that also snared Tim Montgomery, Jones’s former boyfriend. She pleaded guilty last October in United States District Court in White Plains, and Judge Kenneth M. Karas announced her six-month sentence in January. She was released from a federal detention center in Fort Worth on Sept. 5. (Continue Reading…)

McCain Says Racism Will Barely Affect Election
Republican presidential candidate John McCain says racism exists in America, but will be trumped by the nation’s economic problems and play virtually no role when voters head to the polls next Tuesday. In a transcript of an interview taped for broadcast Wednesday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” McCain said people will vote “for the best of reasons, not the worst of reasons.” He said most people will vote based on who they want to lead the country. Referring to people who might vote against Obama because he is black, McCain added: “It would be a tiny, tiny, minority. Because people are hurting too much now. I mean, they’re worried about staying in their homes, keeping their jobs. I don’t have to tell you all these things.” (Continue Reading…)

Cops Find Possible Hudson Murder Weapon
A piece of Jennifer Hudson’s tragic puzzle may be in place. Chicago police have recovered a gun that they believe was the one used in the shooting deaths of the Oscar winner’s mother, brother and nephew. Darnell Donerson, 57, Jason Hudson, 29, and Julian King, 7, are believed to have been killed with a .45-caliber weapon. Technicians from the Illinois State Police crime lab will test the gun they found today against shell casings recovered at the crime scenes. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the gun and other as-yet-undisclosed evidence was discovered by a police recruit, who was conducting a routine search in connection with the investigation, at 1:30 p.m. in an empty trash-strewn lot on 14th Street between Kildare and Kolin Avenues on the city’s West Side. (Continue Reading…)